Worth The Wait
by buzzaround
Summary: Would you choose the one who is safe and steady or the one who can make your pulse pound and your breath unsteady?
1. Chapter 1

A/U

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN BLEACH…

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"Go Away! Leave me alone"

They weren't exactly the words that should make one feel welcome, Rukia thought. Especially given the fact that she traveled a thousand miles just to see him.

But nevertheless Rukia feels cheerful. Probably because this insane request/mission was over before it even started.

It was not because she was seeing him again after ten years, she told herself.

She regarded him thoughtfully. He was at the other side of the door, his arms folded and glaring at her.

He was a cute boy with spiky snow white hair, pale skin and deep green eyes all those years ago, and now he has matured into a handsome man leanly muscled and slightly tanned skin. He used to be just 2 inches taller than her but now he's a foot taller than her.

"Aren't you supposed to be leaving?" He reached out and snapped the door lock, as if she was some sort of barbarian, who would enter his house without an invitation, barge by him, sit on his sofa and demand tea.

Did he really think of her like that? Of Course he does! That's why she'd been overlooked for someone with a better pedigree.

Of Course if he really thought of her like that, He would know the flimsy screen door probably couldn't keep a determined little bunny out.

"Im not Leaving" The words came out of her mouth, all right. But it really surprised her. Because she did not want to be here in the first place. All the way here she had hoped and maybe even prayed for a reaction like this from him. So she could turn on her heels and catch the next flight to New York. That would be enough to soothe her conscience. She had flown all the way here, hadn't she? Who could say she had not tried her hardest? Not made her best effort?

"If you don't go away, I'll kick you out of my porch"

she wondered if she should tell him about the letter in her pocket. But something tells her that it was not the time.

" No you won't kick me out" she said

He glared at her. His eyes turned dark green. Immense eyes. They had always been his best feature.

"I have nothing to say to you"

" We could always talk about the dirt on your face"

He glared at her and slammed the inside door.

Not something a woman who had just traveled a thousand miles should find amusing.

But she did.

It wasn't , she told herself firmly, seeing her again that was causing this sensation inside her- like a light had been turned on within the darkness.

She shoved her hands in her pocket and turned to sit in the swing in his porch. She lived only a block from where they had grown up together. Him,her and Momo.

The community of Karakura, a beautiful place bordering the banks of bow river. From here on his covered porch, she could look south up his street and see the park that ran parallel to the river. A couple of runners enjoyed the paved path under the huge trees.

Sitting on the swing, out of the corner of her eyes she saw the curtains twitched angrily into place.

She rocked the swing slowly with one foot. She like Karakura, She like this place, She had missed it.

The neighborhood is changing so rapidly. Young professionals were snapping up the dignified old houses just across the river from the downtown core and doing renovations on them.

The trend had actually started when she and her dad had moved here years ago. She had been in the sixth grade.

His Father, Toshiro's, was a doctor, and had owned the beautifully kept old house on one side of hers. Momo's parents, a psychologist and veterinarian owned an equally beautiful one on the other.

Her house, a ramshackle rental, was right in the middle. Rukia and her dad, a mechanic with grease under his nails, doing their best to make it after the death of her mom.

She Heard the window squeak open behind her.

"Get lost" he snapped.

"No" she said

The window slammed shut.

She sighed with something like pleasure. Toshiro and his temper.


	2. Chapter 2

His name is Toshiro Hitsugaya, a genius with a perpetual scowl on his face. And a temper like a skyrocket going off.

She looked around his porch with interest. The house was probably sixty years old or more, well kept, nicely painted. The window boxes around the porch are full of different flowers which rioted with colors.

His house back then had always had flowers. His mother had a gift with flowers. Momo's parents had a beautifully landscaped shrubs. Her own yard had sported hulks of cars..

She suppose that's why she's staying. To show Toshiro what she had become, A lawyer now, the shoes she was wearing worth more than her dad used to pay for a month's rent on that old falling down house..

The thing was, she remembered, Toshiro had never seemed to care what she had came from.

And neither did Momo.

They had taken her under their wings from the very first day she had moved in. They had became the three musketeers- ridden their bikes together, went to ice cream booths, built tree houses, walked forever along that path by the doors had always been open to her, both Toshiro and Momo's mothers treating Rukia like she was one of their families.

Rukia felt the strangest clawing sensation in her throat.

Remembering. Those bright days so full of laughter and kinship.

Love.

That was not a too strong word for what the three of them had shared, for what passed in and out of the doors of those three side by side houses.

Of course the inevitable happened.

They got older and the love had changed. Rukia and Momo had both fallen in love with Toshiro.

And he had chosen Momo.

Rukia took out the letter from her pocket, opened it and began to read it again. For at least the hundredth time.

Toshiro inched the curtain back, and looked out. She was still there, sitting in his porch swing, seeming not to care that it had grown quite dark out and probably cold.

"I don't care if she's cold" he muttered to himself.

Rukia.

Blood drained from his head when he opened the door and saw her standing there.

The same and yet very different, too.

The same since she was still so recklessly beautiful that it still takes his breath away.

Her hair is longer now, was black and faintly wavy, and still fell over one eye. Gorgeous violet eyes with hints of laughter, of mischief. Clean sparkling teeth, and she has now an aura of sophistication.

It didn't look like she laughed quite often so much these days. The line in her mouth seemed firm and stern, and the light in her eyes, when he had first opened the door had been distinctly grim. A woman with a mission.

When Toshiro told rukia to go away, that old familiar glint of humor had lit somewhere at the back of rukia's eyes. And then it had deepened when she spotted the dirt on his face.

Those violet eyes drifting down on him with easy familiarity, altogether as sensuous, as a touch.

She had always had that in her. Magnetism. A place in her that could not be tamed, her presence is electrifying making other girls seems smaller, infinitely less interesting, as if they were black and white cutouts, and she was three dimensional and in high def living color.

Toshiro always thought that Rukia will mature to be the kind of woman with a wild side. That she would end up bungee jumping in tall rise buildings, racing cars that she seems to love so much, traveling the world in search of one adventure to the next.

There was nothing ordinary about her, so he had thought that she would always do extraordinary things. Become a secret agent, climb Mount Everest, Join Nascar, Sail solo around the globe.

When he heard she was a lawyer, he couldn't believe it. Had felt disappointed almost. Rukia, a lawyer? It seemed unthinkable.

Until he saw her standing on his porch, oozing with sophistication, confidence and wealth. Of course self-confidence was something she had always had in abundance.

He knew she would make a good lawyer. Better than good. She always had a talent for reading people. She always knew what they would do. She had the toughness, that neither He or Momo had. A toughness that had less to do with being a mechanic's daughter than her deep certainty of who she was and what kind of treatment she would accept at the hands of the world.

But somehow he had never imagined her in Gucci stiletto heels, and silk blouses.

The wild girl banished.

No girl left in her now. All woman out there in his doorstep. And just below the surface the wild side is still there, glittering dangerously, serving to make her more mysterious and intriguing. Dangerously attractive.

She was still there.

And if there was anything about the old Rukia in her she would still be there in the morning. Next week. Next month. Still stubborn as ever.

He could not outwait her, he knew that. He had only been able to say no to her once.

And that one time made a huge difference that led them to where they were standing now.


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks **megui-chan** for the review…

**Disclaimer:** I do not own bleach….

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"_You never came_" Toshiro whispered

"_I'm sorry_" she said

"_She was your best friend too, and you never came when she died" _

"_You never came all the time that she was sick"_

Rukia didn't apologize again

"_Why are you here now?"_ he demanded

"_Im just back for a visit"_ she said softly _"I hope we can spend some time together"_

"_I don't think so"_ He said stiffly, which in Rukia's lawyer mind noted, was quite different than an out and out no.

"_I don't suppose you've ever gone rollerblading have you?"_ Rollerblading, she thought. He was going to think im crazy. But she had the agenda memorized and that was item one. She would break the other two- singing in a pub and going to the lake to watch the stars on the roof- to him later. Once she had her foot in the door.

"_Are you crazy?"_ he asked

"_I Think so"_ she answered, Toshiro's eyes now were different, she realized. Back then they had always had a smile in them. Now they looked angry and a bit sad.

Where did that side of a person go to?

"_look"_ he said, his voice suddenly hard_, "I don't know what you're trying to do, but don't bother. I needed you-Momo needed you-a long time ago. It's too late now."_

He got up and went straight to the door and said _"Go back to where you came from. Don't bother me anymore."_

He was giving her a way out.

Take it and run

She had a busy life back in new york. She wondered now what she was waiting for.

"_I'll be back tomorrow"_ she said softly _"Around ten"_

"_Don't bother"_ he said

She decided she'd walk back to the hotel, just across the river.

It had been a very long time since she had walk around this area.

The hotel room was a very elegant. For a mechanic's daughter she had adjusted to elegance with complete ease.

Impatiently, Rukia went over the tiny fridge and investigated the contents. She took a cola even though she knew it would probably chase the sleep away until dawn.

When had she became so old and stable that she didn't drink cola at night because it kept her awake?

She picked up her luggage, move to the table and snapped it open. Neatly stacks of underwear and tailored suits stared back at her. The work of a woman who doesn't drink cola at night.

Did Toshiro know she was a lawyer? He hadn't asked. Would he ask tomorrow? Would he ask her why?

And would she tell him the truth?

She had contemplated long and hard before choosing. She had thought about becoming a doctor but it's too messy for her taste. So a career that involve blood and body parts is out. She suspected she wouldn't be able to handle looking at tonsils and tooth decay day in and day out so career in dentistry is also out.

Accounting was too dull.

And that seemed to leave law. Nice clean work, for the most part. Extremely high paying profession. She excelled at it. Problem solving, thinking on her feet. Keeping track of multitude of things at once. Butting heads. She liked it. It was constantly changing and challenging.

She knew her becoming a lawyer had been about Toshiro.

He had picked Momo because they were from the same world. She had known intuitively that education was the passport to his world.

Education opened doors. Bought nice things. Bought stability.

She had sworn the next time she was crazy enough, or even drunk enough to ask a guy to be with her, he would say yes.

Toshiro had already had his pick at this particular girl. He had lost his chance.

He Picked Momo

But now Momo was dead.

And Momo had sent Rukia back here.

She closed the briefcase and took the letter back out of her pocket. It was getting soft from so much handling.

She closed her eyes. She really didn't have to read it again.

Momo's last request of her. Make Toshiro laugh again.

Momo beautiful quiet and stable. A good choice if you had to make one. A sensible choice.

That was what they both have been. Toshiro and Momo. bet they didn't drink cola at half past ten at night.

Suddenly she felt so tired.

She set the letter on the table, stripped her clothes and crawled between the soft sheets.

She slept almost instantly.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN BLEACH

megui-chan

CharmedNightSkye

Anime'N'Manga Fan Fiction

Thanks for the reviews

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Rukia awoke in the morning feeling disoriented. Then it came back to her. _Karakura, Toshiro, Momo. A mission._

She groaned, sat up, stretched. She saw the can of cola, and the letter beside it. She picked it up.

_Don't read it again_. He ordered herself, and then she read it again.

_Dear Rukia:_

_I asked my lawyer to wait a year before sending this on to you. Toshiro will need time. We married before we completed university, and he needs to know he can make it on his own, stand on his own._

_But he needs to laugh too._

_I know how much you love him._

_And I know he loved you more than me.. When he picked me, even though he loved you best, I began to believe in miracles._

_You know, I've never stopped believing._

_You and Shiro are my angel. And now, if things work the way I think they do, I'm going to be yours and his._

_This is my last request, Rukia. and only you can do it. Go home. Go to him. Make him laugh, Teach him to have fun again. Rollerblade, sing in a pub, sit out in the roof on the lake and watch for the big dipper and Orion to come out._

_He was always a little afraid of how you grabbed life with both hands. But he knows a little about the nature of life now. He won't be afraid to take what if offers him._

_You're my best friend besides him. I know why you stayed away. He was mad at you, and probably still is, but I wasn't. I'm watching out for the both of you. I promise._

The letter was signed , simply, _love, Momo  
_


End file.
